New Space

One of our err Chris's big projects to accomplish over Christmas break was to rearrange the 3rd floor office space. It's been over three years since we've last organized it, probably closer to four actually. Since that last organization, a LOT has changed with our companies and our family. Read: our needs have changed. He spent two days cleaning and moving and reorganizing this space.

It was quite cramped with too much furniture and our desks were facing each other in the middle of the room. There wasn't much room to spread out and work or play. It was very unfriendly to the kids too with lots of accessible cords and plugs.

This floor is quite functional, it's where our photo editing happens and is also used for equipment storage. I also have my craft area up there.

To help us gain more usable space, we moved things to the outer walls and ditched a huge couch. We now have the creative side and the storage side. This leaves the majority of the room open. There is enough room to have two little boys run in two separate circles at the same time and not have them collide. I've seen it with my own two eyes! Another permanent fixture is the kids' easel with crayons. Also, a small square ikea end table which doubles as a perfect kid-sized table.

Tonight we decided to move 'after dinner family time' to the 3rd floor. Each kid brought up a few toys. They played, we all played, Chris had some photos processing while he built a tent, the kids played together, he blogged, I chatted with a friend, I played. And just like that, it was kiddo bedtime! It was beautiful.

We are happy to have a new space to play and live in.

Here's a view of my new ginormous working/crafting area. In this photo, I am sewing the capes I last blogged about.

Smashing Smock: Following Directions

I have ventured into the world of sewing women's apparel. My first pattern to follow is from Anna Maria Horner's book titled Seams to Me: 24 New Reasons to Love Sewing. I followed the pattern almost to the T. I did add an extra inch of width to all pieces and i later found that i need to add way more than one lonely inch... her book has lots of "how to's" regarding apparel adjustments. So making the proper adjustments to make one to fit ME will not be difficult.

Materials used:
One queen sized top sheet purchased for $.48 at the thrift store.
Coordinating thread I had in my crafty corner.
1 Matching vintage button from this excursion.


Aside from the size issues.... I am very happy with the end result. Plus, I worked out the kinks on this trial run so that with version 2.0 I should have zero hiccups. (there were a few and an experienced seamstress would be able to point them out in a flash. But to the general public, the shirt is a smash!

More photos from this project can be found here.

new bag

This is my new bag, the outer fabric is something i purchased at the Salvation Army's 21st Annual Fabric Fair, the buttons are too. It's lined with traditional linen and i used cotton flannel as a stabilizer. The pattern: MY VERY OWN! yay! it's simple, it was easy and i plan on making more. I also plan on figuring out what sort of stabilizer and interfacing i prefer. While the flannel creates body, it's not as stiff as i would prefer. I'm thinking about trying flannel and sew-in heavy duty interfacing. I also am going to stay away from linen as often as i can manage to do so. It's NOT fun to cut. I swore quite a bit while cutting out the lining and the strap parts...

Details to note: there is an inside pocket large enough to hold a cell phone, business card holder, pack of gum, pen, mp3 player and lip gloss. There is also a magnetic closure so that everything stays put if it's upended. More photos found here.

Oh and one more thing, this one is for ME! Yay for selfish crafting!

awesome thrift store finds

chris did his usually errands around town this morning, and while there he found a few items that he wanted me to check out. there were two jogging strollers both listed for $20 both had their flaws.... and not worth the effort to purchase and resell. so if any readers are looking for some heavily used singer joggers there are two at the st vincent depaul in coraopolis today....

while there, i did find a few other items that were totally worth the drive down there.

here's one:
we have one of these already but we have two kiddos... so i was in search of another. $2.99! score! and doesn't andy look sooooo damn cute in there!? he's such a good little model! i had to hose it off and take a few clorox wipes to it and some goo gone but it's good as new now :)

here's purchase number 2:
again a few clorox wipes later and it's in perfect condition.... and it even makes firetruck sounds!

and for the crafty readers:
there's bias tape, seam bindings, rick rack and some other seaming covers. all in some fun retro colors! 3 for $.49! now i need to dust off my machine again soon!

i spent less than $8 there and got a whole lot of fun!

new bag... new baby stats... new found love

my mother in law reupholstered a wing back chair for me a few months ago (love it!) and she had some left over fabric that she gave to me. i made some pillows but i still had a pretty big piece that was screaming at me to make something out of it. the fabric is bright and cheery but not crazy. it has my favorite colors reds, oranges and pinks. so i decided to make another bag for myself. this time i bought some hefty interfacing to help it keep it's shape, it was the sew in version... next time i'm going to try the iron on kind to see how it makes a difference. i basically made two bags, each with it's own interfacing layer sewn to it, i turned one bag inside out and sewed the edges together, then attached the magnetic closures, folded the top into the inside of the back and pined the straps into place and sewed up the top. it's very thick, very sturdy and i love the shape. i did some basic measuring to keep everything even but i didn't use a pattern, same as last time.

here's a photo:

i attempted to take some photos of the inside but my batteries died :( i found some new ones, i uploaded all my photos to flickr then i realized that i really wanted to take an inside the bag shot but again, as i got all set up outside, my new (but used - thanks for lending them to me max... you won't notice that that crazy toy doesn't make those whacked out noises anymore will you?) batteries died again... sorry... there is one other photo on flickr if you want to check that out.

max turned 9 months over the weekend! he's crawling like a uh, i dunno, baby? ha! anyways, he crawls like mad, he loves it! he had his 9 month drs visit yesterday he weighs 19 lbs 11 oz and is 28 1/2 inches long. he is right on target for growth and a little bit advance in the skilz department! lol he also has been given the green light for eating meat. so last night chris made some sweet and sour chicken in the Pressure Cooker (segway into "new found love") and we gave max some of our chicken all mushed up, he liked it but it was a little dry for him... we're just happy that he can now start to eat what we're eating :) how fun is this going to be?

new found love... my Rapida Pressure Cooker. Number one reason, chris cooks with it! number 2 reason, it's fast and super tasty food! we received this as a wedding gift almost 4 years ago and we had one failed attempt at using it to make some beans... we are not back on the pressure cooker wagon with a vengeance. AND, i'm going to attempt to use it soon... it scares me for some reason... but i WILL figure it out. chris has made three totally yummy things in it. the first was beef in an onion raisin sauce, the 2nd was rice pudding with dried cranberries! (he's made this twice actually) and the third was the sweet and sour chicken. one thing that we need to work out is the timing. it's very easy to over cook things, then they turn out kinda dry but still tasty. it's a work in progress.... stay tuned for more fun food stories surrounding the rapida pressure cooker! i like the name rapida.... it makes me think of mexican food! mexican food that's FAST! Rapido!

spring cleaning

it's monday, we changed the clocks forward two nights ago. yesterday, FLEW by... today, i'm a little groggy and so is maxwell but it's not too bad, i'm actually motivated more than anything. the cats don't seem to notice though....

yesterday chris and i spent most of the day spring cleaning the office. my desk is (for the first time) totally clear of clutter! no magazines, no papers, no random items that belong elsewhere in the house. i threw out, i reorganized, and i cleaned. the only thing left to do is vacuum which we couldn't do at 11 pm last night because max was asleep... and i didn't want to chance it. on a whim the other day, i bought some of those little magazine organizers at IKEA. we have a lot of magazines, they are mostly photography related and need to be kept. i also don't want to get rid of my Real Simple magazines because they have so many great recipes in them that i've never ever made... my thoughts are that if i know where they all are, then i'll reference them more often. wish me luck :)

i also made a list of "to do's". it's not an unattainable list but a reminder sort of list. i always say, OOh, i'm going to make this or do this or that... then i promptly forget... until the next time i'm motivated and think, oh yeah, i was going to do this last year.... i'm going to do this NOW... and then promptly forget... this list will help me stay on track. one of the first items on the list was to clean and reorganize the office AND set up a sewing station for me. i had been "storing" my machine in the dining room on the floor next to the buffet. that's not acceptable. i would then have to set it up at the dining room table when i was working on a project. that takes up the entire table and i am sick of that... so we moved it upstairs. and put it on our old kitchen table that had been up there and was just a resting place for items that didn't have a proper home. now those items do have homes and so does my machine! (i even cleaned it!) i have a few items that i need to get to further organize that space but for the most part, i'm on my way to having a crafting corner :) yay!

I made this last week:
it's my first attempt at a tote bag. see, i had this diaper bag but i have since grown out of it. since i now have to bring food items with us everywhere we go, this small bag just doesn't work well.... we were bursting at the seams and i needed a little more space. so i created this cute bag. it's perfect! fits everything we need to have with us and has a little extra room for whatever else might need to come along as well :) here are more photos. i didn't use a pattern, i simply bought a yard of fabric that i liked, cut it in half, did some trimming and basically put a bag inside a bag, it's lined, has a small inside pocket for keys and my phone and has a magnetic closure to keep all of it's items inside... there's even room for a small knitting project if need be :) spectacular!

i'm almost finished with the knitted bibs... i didn't get much knitting time last week since chris was out of town. but i'm planning on finishing the 2nd one in the next few days so that i can get them in the mail. photos of those to come soon.

other than that, spring/summer is on it's way! chris and i sat down yesterday and went over our weekend schedules for the next few weeks and we realized that we've got 6 weekends go go until he's finished with the semester. then we'll be able to kick off our summer with a PROPER trip to NYC. and have the rest of the summer to be pretty much carefree (for the most part) we're so excited to spend time with max as he is starting to so much more aware of his surroundings... he's standing (while holding on of course) like a champ. we both think he's going to bypass crawling. i'm also convinced that he said his first word the other day, it was "hh" which is "hi" he is waving too - it's adorable.

ok, i'm off to conquer mt. laundry - it's a very steep peek!